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by Department of Families Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

Report

Year

2011

City

Canberra

Institution

Department of Families, Housing, community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Australia

Date

9 February 2011

Abstract

The third annual report outlines the progress that has been made towards meeting the targets set to close the gap in life expectancy, early childhood, health, education and employment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The most positive change has been in the area of child mortality where the gap has significantly narrowed in recent years.

The report provides information on the seven key building blocks identified by the Government as addressing specific areas of Indigenous disadvantage, including:

early childhood building block

schooling building block

health building block

healthy homes building block

safe communities building block

economic participation building block

governance and leadership building block.

The Government has committed to investing $5.75 billion over three years to make long-term improvements in each of these building block areas. The report acknowledges the interrelated nature of the Closing the gap targets, and outlines how each of the seven key building blocks works individually and together to make progress towards the targets.

The report also acknowledges how progress can only be made through a partnership approach with Indigenous individuals and communities, and the large role that the corporate and community sectors have to play in closing the gap. The National Congress of Australia's First Peoples and constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australian's are cited as key instances of how this partnership approach has been implemented.

The report recognises that previous methods of data collection were inadequate to measure progress made; to improve the evidence base the Government has committed $46.4 million over four years from 2009-10. Finally the report concludes that there is still much work to be done to address Indigenous disadvantage, but hopefully through following the targets set 'closing the gap' will be a realisable achievement within the next generation.

Tools

Related program(s)

The Strategic Indigenous housing and infrastructure program (SIHIP) was a joint program between the Australian and Northern Territory Governments focusing on housing infrastructure in remote communities and town camps in the Northern Territory (NT).

The Army Aboriginal community assistance program is a joint initiative between the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) and Australian Army to improve environmental health conditions within remote Aboriginal communities.